EU Warns Greece It May Lose €750 Million in Funds

The European Commission reportedly warned Greece today that it risks losing €750 million in funds if it fails to complete a raft of reforms by the end of the month.

The London Times quotes a senior EU official saying that the Greeks “are behind schedule on what they need to deliver.”

The paper says that the warning has set the Athens government scrambling to deliver on sixteen commitments it has vowed to complete since it emerged from eight years of austerity last August.

The EU is pushing Greece to implement fiscal structural reforms in order to receive debt relief measures. The areas of social welfare, the financial sector, labor market reforms, privatizations and public administration and justice are areas of particular concern.

On Monday, Klaus Regling, the Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism, said that a decision on Greece will be taken at the next Eurogroup meeting on February 27.

Finance ministers will make decisions based on the contents of the second enhanced surveillance report on Greece’s finances, which the institutions will then make public.

Regling explained that there are some “open issues” at the moment, which Greece still has a few weeks to address before the report of enhanced surveillance is completed.

“The Greek authorities are in constant communication with the institutions, and the issues are clearly identified,” Regling said. He added that “we know that the Greek side is working very hard, but I cannot tell you what will happen at the next Eurogroup.”